However, bearish sentiment is also on the rise

The weekly figures from the Investors Intelligence (II) sentiment survey are out. Here are the highlights:

Bullish sentiment among advisors rose to 51.1% (0.1% increase).

Bearish sentiment among advisors rose to 25.5% (1.0% increase).

23.4% of advisors foresee a correction in the market.

There was a very slight gain in the bulls, which makes it the fourth straight week that bulls increased. A bigger gain in the bears caused a slight drop in the bulls-minus-bears line. Since June, the bulls have increased dramatically, but the bears have remained pretty stable. The gains have come from those on the fence in the "correction" camp. The bulls-minus-bears line, at 25.6%, still has some room before it gets to the 40% level, which we consider extreme bullishness.

The table below compares the current data to typical data since 2005. There is more optimism than usual looking at the bulls-minus-bears data.